Portrait of a Marriage: Eco-Geeks Unplugged

No Impact Man

“No Impact Man” is a documentary about Colin Beavan, author of a blog and book of the same name. The title of this multifarious, multimedia project is, if not exactly disingenuous, at least somewhat double edged. For a year Mr. Beavan and his family turned their small Manhattan apartment into the site of an experiment in radical nonconsumption. They forewent many of the conveniences of modern life — from coffee to electricity to toilet paper — in order to minimize their use, direct and indirect, of carbon-based fuels. But even as he and his wife, Michelle Conlin, organized their daily routines to have the least possible environmental impact, Mr. Beavan, a freelance writer, was working to maximize the cultural and ideological impact of his enterprise.

The year of doing something crazy to learn a lesson or prove a point is by now less a gimmick than a full-fledged publishing genre. Activities that would, in the course of ordinary life, count as modest or private undertakings acquire a special significance when they become the basis of book proposals. A. J. Jacobs followed numerous biblical commandments (there are a lot more than 10); Morgan Spurlock ate nothing but fast food; Julie Powell cooked her way through Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” And Mr. Beavan, in a similarly self-displaying if more austere spirit, weaned himself, Ms. Conlin and their young daughter from motorized transportation, nonlocal food and light bulbs.

His intentions, as stated in the film and on his blog, were indisputably virtuous. By pushing himself further than even the most conscientious recyclers and locavores are usually willing to go, Mr. Beavan hoped to raise awareness both about the ecological costs of overconsumption and about possible solutions to the problem. These goals are, conveniently, as impossible to measure as they are to criticize. They also rest on an unexamined investment in the culture of celebrity and publicity, which, while perhaps less globally destructive than carbon-burning consumerism, can have a corrosive effect on individual dignity and collective morality. The main purpose of the year of no impact was to justify, and to raise awareness of, the project itself.

Taken as a polemical documentary championing environmentally conscious action, “No Impact Man,” directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein, is of little interest and less utility. It provides no new scientific insights or political arguments, and celebrates various behavioral changes without assessing their value or importance. Mr. Beavan’s evangelical, self-congratulatory demeanor has the effect, especially early in the film, of playing to the unfortunate perception that what drives many environmentalists is, above all, the need to feel superior to their neighbors and fellow citizens.

“No Impact Man,” however, is not really an eco-documentary. There are plenty of those. But there are not many films that so unsparingly (if also, perhaps, inadvertently) expose the confused power dynamics of a certain kind of modern middle-class marriage. Whatever else he is doing, Mr. Beavan is, by laying down a new and draconian set of household laws, dramatically asserting his own authority in the domestic sphere. A thoroughly modern dad, who does most of the cooking and dishwashing and whose wife goes off each day to work in the offices of BusinessWeek, he is a paragon of sensitive patriarchy.

As Ms. Conlin points out to her husband, the blog and the book (and now the movie) are called “No Impact Man,” not “No Impact Family.” But this doesn’t mean that she’s exempt, only that he’s in charge. When she asks for permission to drink coffee to help her through a work deadline, Mr. Beavan scolds and pouts and guilt-trips her for breaking protocol, all the while claiming that he doesn’t really care if she does or not. But even after the lights have gone out and the refrigerator has been replaced by a giant flowerpot lined with sand, enough electrical power is found to keep Mr. Beavan’s laptop going. He has a blog (noimpactman.typepad.com) to write, after all.

Later, when Ms. Conlin wants to discuss the possibility of having a second child — a sibling for their adorable 2-year-old daughter, Isabella — Mr. Beavan complains that having such a conversation on camera is too much like reality television. Further, he says he can see no connection or parallel between his investment in the no-impact project and her desire for more kids.

The filmmakers found their way to “No Impact Man” because Ms. Gabbert is a longtime friend of Ms. Conlin, whose side the film, at first, seems implicitly to take in a simmering marital battle. Mr. Beavan comes across as a passive-aggressive zealot, and when — in the wake of an article in The New York Times about the family — his wife receives messages from strangers urging her to dump him, it’s hard not to see their point. Not that she is entirely admirable. Needy and indecisive, she seems like the weaker, less imaginative member of the couple.

But then about halfway through, just as you start to think you can’t stand another minute(much less six more months) with these people, the film executes a quietly surprising turn. Mr. Beavan starts to seem more humble and less domineering, and Ms. Conlin turns from whiny camp follower into skeptical good sport. The family bikes around the city and cooks organic food by candlelight, and the no-impact regimen mutates from family issue to family adventure.

Not everyone will want to come along. And I remain unconvinced that the cause of planetary rescue will be advanced very far by what is, in the end, an elaborate stunt. But as a professional writer, a New York husband and a man with a compost bin, an organic-produce fetish and a guilty conscience, I can’t, in the end (all appearances to the contrary), judge Mr. Beavan or this film too severely. Making an impact is easy. Making a difference is hard.

NO IMPACT MAN

Opens on Friday in Manhattan.

Written and directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein; based on the book “No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries He Makes About Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process” by Colin Beavan; director of photography, Mr. Schein; edited by William Haugse and Matthew Martin; music by Bobby Johnston; produced by Ms. Gabbert and Eden Wurmfeld; released by Oscilloscope Laboratories. At the Angelika Film Center, Mercer and Houston Streets, Greenwich Village. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. This film is not rated.

No Impact Man

DirectorsLaura Gabbert, Justin Schein

StarsColin Beavan, Michelle Conlin

RatingNot Rated

Running Time1h 33m

GenreDocumentary

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Last updated: Mar 30, 2016

A version of this review appears in print on , on page C8 of the New York edition with the headline: Portrait of a Marriage: Eco-Geeks Unplugged. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe